Hole - Seattle-based alternative rock band - formed
in 1989 in Los Angeles consisting of Courtney Love
(vocals, guitar), Eric Erlandson (guitar), Patty
Schemel (drums - who replaced original drummer,
Caroline Rue), and Melissa Auf Der Maur (bass,
backing vocals). Hole's second bassist, Kristen Pfaff
died of a heroin overdose in June, 1994, at the age
of 27 (Pfaff had replaced original bassist, Jill
Emery, after she quit). Courtney Love was born on
July 9, 1964, in California. Love's adolescent years
included a lot of moving around with her mother and
disdain for her father. Before breaking out as a
musician, Love tried her hand at acting and
stripping. Love took her struggles and translated her
pain and power into music.

Hole's first LP Pretty
On The Inside did create a stir in the alternative
world before Love's persona took center-stage.
Standout tracks on the LP included
"Clouds," "Starbelly," and
"Teenage Whore." Q magazine called
the LP, "...loud, ugly and deliberately
shocking."

Love married Nirvana's Kurt Cobain - the couple had
one child together. It has taken a few years for Hole
to be noticed as a superior alternative band. Foes of
the band often claim the band's publicity and
notoriety surrounded Love's marriage to Cobain, the
deaths of Cobain and Pfaff, or the outrageous
on-stage and off-stage antics of Courtney Love, as
the cause of their success. Yet, when listening to
the raw-edge sound and lyrics of Hole, the
surrounding controversies disappear.

It was the release of Live
Through This(released a week after
Cobain's suicide) that brought Hole into the
spotlight. Coverage of Love as the grieving widow and
videos on MTV resulted in increase record sales. As
the impact of Cobain's suicide lessened, the actual
music and message of Hole's music continued to bring
in new fans. The haunting "Doll Parts" with accompanying video became an
instant alternative classic. Press coverage of Hole
continued throughout the year , with the death of
bassist Kristen Pfaff and the concert controversies
involving Love.

Hole released the EP, Ask
For It
containing tracks from 1991 and 1992 recorded live at
the Whiskey in Hollywood, CA.
Hole was seen on MTV Unplugged.
The video for "Doll Parts" was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video. September 25: Courtney Love was sentenced
to 1 year in prison for assaulting Kathleen
Hanna of Bikini Kill. The
sentence was suspended for 2 years and included a
fine and anger management.

Love returned to a fledging acting career, and began
to receive parts worthy of her challenge. Love
co-starred in The
People Vs. Larry Flynt and received universal praise for her
acting. She was nominated for a Golden Globe award
and received numerous Critic Awards. When the Academy
Award nominations were announced, most reporters
talked about which actresses were not nominated (i.e.
Love, Madonna) than the ones who did receive
a nomination. By this point, Love had traded her
grunge-rock image for Hollywood's princess, and as a
result gained new fans, and alienated other fans.

"New" music from Hole hit the
stores - My
Body The Hand Grenade contained 14 tracks of b-sides and live
material spanning the band's career. One track,
"Turpentine," was recorded in a basement in
1990. Additional tracks include "Retard
Girl," "Dicknail," "Phonebill
Song," "Burn Black," and
"Beautiful Son," and previously unreleased
live versions of "Asking For It,"
"Drown Soda," "He Hit Me (And It Felt
Like A Kiss)," and "Season Of The
Witch."

It was announced that Love would be lending her name
and voice to an anti-drug campaign. Love was the
featured speaker at a press conference for the
campaign which will concentrate their efforts on
youth. The ad campaigns will be a joint effort of the
Partnership for a Drug-Free American and the
Musicians' Assistance Program. Speakers on the
anti-drug ads will include former substance abusing
musicians and relatives of deceased musicians,
including Troy Nowell (wife of the late Brad Nowell
of Sublime), Lauryn Hill of the Fugees, Everclear, Kiss, and
Chuck D of Public Enemy. Love
referred to drugs in her speech as "dumb and
self-indulgent."

A documentary called Kurt
And Courtney was pulled from the Sundance Film
Festival after Hole reportedly was threatening a
lawsuit for defamation of character. The documentary
is said to portray Hole in an unflattering manner in
regards to her husband's suicide.

Love had a lawsuit filed against her by a columnist
who claims Love assaulted her at a fashion show in
Los Angeles. The suit alleges that Love grabbed the
woman's hair (after she photographed Love), yelled
"don't be taking pictures of me - do you think
I'm not still punk rock?," and struck her in the
face and groin. A spokesperson for Love said Love
will "vigorously" fight the charges in
court: "...this is another out-of-control
paparazzi targeting a celebrity."

Love issued a statement regarding Hole's next LP and
how much (or how little) credit Billy Corgan (Smashing
Pumpkins) should receive for his effort with the
LP. In April, Corgan had told SonicNet,
"I thought the album was a smash and I still
think that... it's gonna be a fantastic album."
But after Corgan referred to himself as the
"Svengali" of the the LP and told Select,
"there would not be a new Hole album without
me," Love sent out a statement to USA Today.
Love's statement read: "Eric (Erlandson) and I
co-wrote 5 songs of the 12 on Celebrity
Skinwith
Billy Corgan. Billy does not have a majority of
publishing percentage on any 1 of those songs...
Billy did, however, spend quality time mentoring and
teaching me a craft that I really needed to learn in
order to make the record I wanted to make, much like
a brilliant music teacher, and that was what was so
invaluable to me... I feel it's silly and somewhat
sexist to credit Billy Corgan with things Billy
Corgan did not do based on the assumption that
accomplished male musicians are somehow superior to
accomplished female musicians..."

Hole's next LP Celebrity
Skinwas
released - the LP featured several tracks co-written
by Billy Corgan (Smashing
Pumpkins). Love told Vox magazine:
"...on my list of thanks for the record, number
one was Echo & The Bunnymen,
because Will Sergeant taught me the strum" and
describes the song, "Awful" as
"...very, very compelling... it's going to end
up sound even more like ABBA..." Love and Erlandson
talked with SonicNet about their new LP and
the years since Live
Through This: "...some intense personal habits
had to be dealt with that had to do with health and
mental capacity... some intense stuff that happened
to my life..." (Love) "...we took the time
that we needed to grow and took our time writing,
instead of writing on the road, hopping in the studio
like a lot of bands do and releasing a sub-level
record" (Erlandson).

Erlandson opted to talk to Rolling
Stonea little more about the length of time it took
to release a new LP and his perception of Billy
Corgan's role on the LP: "I wasn't going to
release it until it was right, until I felt it was
done... that's all I cared about. Everyone thought I
was losing my perspective, and on some things, I did.
But for the most part, I think I was pretty
objective. I wanted to make sure that every song fit
in with the record, all sounding good together.... I
was really against (Corgan producing) right away. In
fact, when Courtney suggested it, I said, 'Courtney,
I'll never talk to you again if Billy produces this
album' I was really strong about it... but then I
caved." Celebrity
Skin was
certified gold.
Hole hit the Top 40 with "Celebrity Skin."
Hole topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart
with "Celebrity
Skin" for
4 weeks.

It was announced that Samantha Maloney would remain
as Hole's drummer during touring while Schemel
continues "on holiday for personal
reasons."

Hole was nominated for a MTV Video Music Awardfor Best Cinematography ("Malibu"). Love was nominated for a VH1 Fashion Award for
the Most Fashionable Artist (Female).Reports surfaced that Melissa Auf Der Maur quit
the band to pursue a solo career. But her label
stated that news of her departure is untrue.

It became official that Melissa Auf Der Maur had left
the band to pursue other interests.

Love could be seen in the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man
On The Moon opposite Jim Carey.

Hole's record company Geffen Records filed a
breach of contract suit against the band for only
releasing 2 of the 7 expected LPs.

Love vented her frustrations about music piracy but
she wasn't complaining about computer downloading
(i.e. Napster) just yet, she choose to
attack record companies: "What is piracy? Piracy
is the act of stealing an artist's work without any
intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about
Napster-type software. I'm talking about major label
recording contracts... At this point the "record
collector" geniuses who use Napster don't have
the coolest most arcane selection anyway, unless
you're into techno...Since I've basically been giving
my music away for free under the old system, I'm not
afraid of wireless, MP3 files or any of the other
threats to my copyrights. Anything that makes my
music more available to more people is great..."
When Mötley Crüe headed out to tour in the
summer, Maloney filled in as drummer for Randy
Castillo who had stomach surgery. She said of the
chance: "Playing with Mötley Crüe has been a lifelong dream for
me... it's like winning the lotto."

Love had to give up a role in John Carpenter's Ghost
Of Mars after hurting her ankle while preparing
for the physical role.

Love filed a lawuit against Dave Grohl and Krist
Novoselic for the rights pertaining to Nirvana (an eventual agreement was
reached months later).

Hole officially broke up with a statement by Love
("I will always treasure the time we played
together.") and Erlandson ("We're
incredibly proud of the music we've made together,
but it seems like time for both of us to move
on.").

Courtney was arrested at Heathrow Airport in
London after she reportedly was unruly and
non-compliant during a flight from Los Angeles.

Courtney was arrested and charged with "being
under the influence of a controlled substance"
and was hospitalized after being freed on bail, when
she was found in Beverly Hills with "an
unexplained medical emergency" that other
reports are calling a drug overdose. She later
admitted to People magazine that she took an
overdose of the painkiller Oxycontin. By the end of
the month, Courtney was in court attempting to regain
custody of her 11 year old daughter who had been
placed with Kurt Cobain's mother. Courtney also turned
herself in to face 2 felony charges of drug
possession at the end of the month.

Courtney appeared in court to answer to drug
possession charges and plead not guilty, as well as
requesting treatment instead of jail time. By the end
of the month she was in rehab.

Courntey was arrested in New York after allegedly
striking an audience member with a microphone stand
at her concert. The incident occured after Love
appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman
on which Love bared her breast to Letterman.

Courtney was confronted with another arrest warrant
in California for assault charges from an incident in
April when she reportedly assaulted a woman with a
flash light and bottle.
Courtney postponed her concert tour 2 days before it
was to begin due to recent legal issues.

Courtney was ordered into an in-patient substance
abuse faciity after she admitted to violating the
terms of her probabation and had used drugs.

Courtney was orded to serve 6 months in a
rehabilitation facility for violating her probation.

Note: Song title and position
links lead you to the song's Top 40 chart run
(from the ARC Weekly Top 40) and LP links take you to Amazon.com for that LP (often
including track listings and sound samples).